Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

When we went to Illinois for Christmas Josh fell in love with deep dish pizza. We helped my dad make it for dinner one night and Josh has been talking about it ever since. Utah has some good pizza places, but we haven't found a good deep dish place, so Josh decided to try it on his own.

There is no way we could eat a huge deep dish pizza on our own, so we cooked dinner for the Dewey family. It was great fun! Josh did most of the work, I was his assistant. He used the same recipe my dad used. This time we did a veggie section for me...and the rest had veggies, sausage, and pepperoni. I made a homemade pizza sauce and we loaded it with cheese too!

The pizza was down right delicious! The crust was thick, tasty, and crusty, like it should be:) It held all of the toppings together. We had one monster pizza going on. Josh's craving was satisfied...and the Dewey's enjoyed it as well.

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

Dough

• 4 Cups Flour
• 1 Cup Milk
• 1 Tbsp. Butter
• 1 Tbsp. Sugar
• 1 tsp. Salt
• 1 Package Instant Dry Yeast
• About 1 cup of water-add a little at a time until you get the right dough consistency

Scald milk. Add butter, sugar and salt. Allow milk mixture to cool to "warm." Add yeast and mix thoroughly.

In a heavy-duty mixer (e.g., KitchenAid), add milk mixture. Slowly add flour until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl and forms a ball. Add water, a little at a time, until the dough combines. Knead dough for 5-10 minutes. Cover and allow dough to rise for 2 hours. Punch down the dough, knead briefly, and allow to rise and additional 2 hours until approximately doubled in bulk.

Sauce

• 1 Can (16 ounces) Tomato Sauce
• Salt to taste
• Oregano
• Thyme
• Black pepper
• Fresh basil
• Garlic

Simmer sauce for 1/2 hour.

Toppings and Cheese

Use whatever toppings you like: sausage, pepperoni, veggies, etc.

Shred a lot of mozzarella cheese! We use a lot!

Assembly & Baking

Grease a 10" deep-dish pizza pan or cast iron skillet. Roll the crust to fit the pan. The edges should come to the top of the pan. Take a little bit of sauce and put it on the bottom. Put some cheese on the bottom. Take some of the sauce and spread it on the cheese. Add whatever toppings you like. Take more of the cheese and spread a layer. Add a lot of sauce to the top. Sprinkle with extra cheese if you wish.

Bake 45 minutes at 425 degrees F or until bubbly!